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The Genealogy of Jesus (Endnotes)

1. It is not the purpose of this article to set forth, or resolve, the various issues that are raised inside the genealogies themselves. Many scholarly articles have been written on those subjects. Nevertheless, in the survey of literature that we conducted for this article, it seems that most scholars miss the most salient points: that both Joseph’s and Mary’s genealogies are contained in the Gospel records, with Luke recording Joseph’s and Matthew recording Mary’s. Close

2. Matthew is considered the most Jewish of the Four Gospels, and some scholars believe that it was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, which, given Matthew’s background, would be plausible. If that were the case, the Greek text of Mathew would be a translation from the Hebrew or Aramaic. Whether or not that is the case, the Aramaic text is very early, and would represent an early understanding of the distinction between Joseph the father of Mary and Joseph the husband of Mary. Close